Influence Of Western Culture

Greek philosopher Herclitus [535BC – 475BC] believed that change was inevitable in the universe. One of his popular sayings was “The only constant is change”. Humans and indeed the world have evolved over the millennia to its current state – The Information Age. This is an age during which technology, social networks, and the internet rule peoples’ lives. Consequently, countries are constantly growing, trying to keep up with their neighbouring nations in terms of its infrastructure, people, economy, culture, technology and communication. Countries take in different ideals, norms and ways from other countries around the world in an attempt to compete and “stay ahead”. A common example is the Western influence and the impact it has on some Eastern countries. The way people talk, dress, live and behave can be attributed to the prevalence of Western culture.

India is one of the Eastern countries most easily influenced by Westernisation. Many things that were once seen as taboo in India are now acceptable. An example is in Hindu dialect movies. Kissing on-screen was seen as a big “no-no”, yet in the new age of Indian movies, it is not uncommon to see mild nudity and sexual scenes. Another noticeable trait was how they used to dress in the movies. Girls normally wore Indian garments. However, it has now changed. Girls wear a lot more revealing and evocative clothing. In older Indian movies, it was a rare occurrence for the actors and actresses to use more than a handful of English words when speaking. It has now completely changed in recent years of Indian cinema. This is much to the dismay of avid Indian movie watchers who prefer a more cultures view of India. They feel that there is a loss of authenticity. This shows the impact that A...

... middle of paper ...

...ed. His style of dressing became more flamboyant, with the rings, and chains on his hands. Also, in the earlier scenes, as a teenager, he is seen wielding a gun and also dabbles in drinking alcohol. This showed that Western influence has its disadvantages. Later on, the money becomes his death as he regrets his choice. In the end, both brothers achieved what they wanted, choosing different paths. However to one of them, money wasn’t the objective, but for the other, money was all he had.

In my opinion, this movie showed that India has become overly influenced by the Western culture, and as such, has lost some of its core values. Even the songs that were played during the movie had English lyrics. Although there were many themes running through the movie, I feel like this movie has not properly shown what it is like to be Indian. There is too much external influence.